Tim Kaine, Catholic of Convenience

By Michael Shannon

One surefire way to spot an election year is to check Tim Kaine's closet. If he's been rummaging around inside, looking for his clerical collar, someone is going to be voting in November. This time Kaine is being introduced to a new, nationwide electorate as the senator from Virginia joins Hillary Clinton on the Democrat ticket.

Kaine's role in 2016 is an expansion of his usual Virginia performance as "designated Christian." His nationwide rollout as the theological counterpoint to Hillary's aggressively secular reputation generates unintentionally funny coverage. Kaine's being a Christian and a Democrat is so novel, it's newsworthy!

The media's sympathetic coverage treats publicly announcing your belief in God as a disability that successful politicians work to overcome. That's why a candidate caught with a church bulletin in his briefcase is geometrically more frightening to the Bernie Bros and the rest of the pagan Democrat base than Tim Kaine in a turban and a suspiciously bulky down jacket in August.

Independents are the real target for Kaine and that's why he's being introduced to them like he's a man of the cloth. Already the Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio have called him a "devout Catholic" and other publications talk about his "[balancing his] catholic faith with Democrat politics."

Yet somehow over the years when Kaine's faith is weighed in that balance it always tilts toward Democrat orthodoxy and Christian heresy.

The truth is Tim Kaine is a devout Catholic like Judas was a devout follower of Jesus.

Judas' willing participation in one big death ripped the curtain guarding the Holy of Holies, while Kaine's equally willing participation in millions abortion deaths tears our social fabric today.

Kaine finesses the Bible and his Catholic church's prohibition against abortion with the same shuffle that Mario Cuomo tried in the 70's. Kaine claims to be "strongly opposed" to abortion, but according to the Monitor, "he describes these convictions as personal beliefs. In accord with the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, he doesn't think the government has the right to dictate such an intimate decision for women."

For Kaine, when it comes to deciding how he will respond to the life or death of the unborn a judicial robe trumps priestly vestments.

Kaine is both wrong and actively misleading the public. Deciding to become a vegan is a personal belief. Belief in the sanctity of innocent life is being obedient to the call of Christ. A person who sincerely personally opposes abortion doesn't have a 100 percent voting record with the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood.

Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis spent five days in jail defending the sanctity of marriage. Tim Kaine doesn't have the courage to cast five votes to defend the sanctity of life.

There is nothing preventing Kaine from voting his conscience and opposing public funding for abortions. Or allowing Christian organizations to decide what medical procedures the company will cover, but Kaine's votes are laid before the altar of abortion.

There is nothing preventing Kaine from joining thousands of other Catholics during the Right to Life March, yet the event somehow never makes it on his calendar.

The issues where Kaine does choose to highlight his flexible faith mark him as a Comintern Catholic who has adopted the Left's "social justice" agenda. In Kaine's view God needs to get with the program and move faster. Like ISIS, he wants to use the power of government inaugurate a paradise on earth, only without the public executions.

If men won't change their hearts on their own Kaine, like Hillary, is happy to do it for them.

Marvin Olasky talks about college students functioning in an environment hostile to their belief when he says: "The milder form of surrender is to see the Bible as personally meaningful but irrelevant to public discussion. That's also destructive to faith in Christ's lordship."

The same admonition applies to Kaine.

Kaine is a Catholic as long as it's convenient. But faith always takes a seat in the back of the bus when it starts to interfere with his career as a Democrat professional politician. It's time to tell Kaine he can't have it both ways. If his faith isn't strong enough to guide his voting record and his witness on issues that affect God's kingdom, then he needs to leave his clerical collar in the closet and stop clinging to Jesus' coattails.